The tire tread compound is an important compound in a tire that dictates wear, traction, and rolling resistance. It is a technical challenge to deliver excellent traction, low rolling resistance while providing good tread wear. The challenge lies in the trade-off between wet traction and rolling resistance/tread wear. Raising the compound Tg would provide better wet traction but, at the same time, increase the rolling resistance and tread wear. There are needs to develop a tread compound additive that can provide good wet traction without increasing the rolling resistance and tread wear.
Functionalized SBR (styrene butadiene rubber) is one method to improve this trade-off by improving filler dispersion. Nanoprene™, sub-micron to micron sized gels from Lanxess with cross-linked butadiene cores and acrylic shells, is another additive used to increase the wet traction without affecting rolling resistance. However, Nanoprene can only deliver limited improvement in wet traction. What is needed is a polymeric additive to improve the balance between tread wear and rolling resistance that is compatible with the most common tire tread components.
Related references include U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,040,601, 8,742,019, 8,431,065, 7,867,433, 6,686,419, US 2012/0245293, US 2012/0245300; U.S. Ser. No. 61/704,611 filed on Sep. 24, 2012; and U.S. Ser. No. 61/704,725 filed on Sep. 24, 2012.